The Best 125 Quotes About Change to Inspire You Take Action

No matter where you come from or what you’ve been through, there are certain things we all share as human beings. 

We all want to be loved and cared for. We all want to pursue our dreams and develop our potential. And perhaps most of all — whether we admit it or not — we all want to live in a better world. Is such a thing so much to ask for?

This means we’ll need to act collectively to change our existing reality.

So here are our Best 125 Quotes About Change to Inspire You to Change the World:

Famous quotes about change

As you grow older you will discover that you have two hands. One for helping yourself, the other for helping others.

Audrey Hepburn

At the end of the day, it’s not about what you have or even what you’ve accomplished. It’s about what you’ve done with those accomplishments. It’s about who you’ve lifted up, who you’ve made better. It’s about what you’ve given back.

- Denzel Washington (read more quotes)

Peace begins with a smile.

- Mother Teresa (read more quotes)

Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.

- Leo Tolstoy

Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.

- Nelson Mandela (read more quotes)

In a gentle way, you can shake the world.

- Mahatma Gandhi (read more quotes)

Let us remember: One book, one pen, one child, and one teacher, can change the world.

- Malala Yousafzai (read more quotes)

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.

– Margaret Mead

Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change.

- Stephen Hawking

Change the way you look at things and the things you look at change.

- Wayne Dyer

Nothing is so painful to the human mind as a great and sudden change.

- Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

Change your thoughts and you change your world.

- Norman Vincent Peale

If you want to make enemies, try to change something.

- Woodrow Wilson

Change is inevitable. Change is constant.

- Benjamin Disraeli

It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.

- Charles Darwin

Time changes everything except something within us which is always surprised by change.

- Thomas Hardy

Nothing is absolute. Everything changes, everything moves, everything revolves, everything flies and goes away.

- Frida Kahlo

The man who never alters his opinion is like standing water, and breeds reptiles of the mind.

- William Blake

Quotes about change and growth

Change is necessary. It helps us grow, it makes the existing model obsolete. We can’t become better by staying the same, and sometimes you even have to get out of your comfort zone if you want to take positive steps in a certain direction. This is the spirit that helps push the human race forward. So while circumstances may evolve, friends leave and lovers disappear, we must remember that if you can find inspiration, there is room for improvement. The only lasting truth on this earth is change. We must accept it. Only what doesn’t change dies, what doesn’t bend, breaks.

Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.

– Harriet Tubman

To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.

– Winston Churchill

The snake which cannot cast its skin has to die. As well the minds which are prevented from changing their opinions; they cease to be mind.

- Friedrich Nietzsche

The measure of intelligence is the ability to change

– Albert Einstein

When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.

– Victor Frankl

I cannot say whether things will get better if we change; what I can say is they must change if they are to get better.

– Georg C. Lichtenberg

When patterns are broken, new worlds emerge.

– Tuli Kupferberg

If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude.

– Maya Angelou

He who rejects change is the architect of decay. The only human institution which rejects progress is the cemetery.

– Harold Wilson

Be the change that you wish to see in the world.

– Mahatma Gandhi

If we don’t change, we don’t grow. If we don’t grow, we aren’t really living.

– Gail Sheehy

Incredible change happens in your life when you decide to take control of what you do have power over instead of craving control over what you don't.

- Steve Maraboli

Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.

– Barack Obama

Your life does not get better by chance, it gets better by change.

– Jim Rohn

The art of life lies in a constant readjustment to our surroundings.

– Kakuzō Okakura

The secret of change is to focus all of your energy not on fighting the old, but on building the new.

– Dan Millman

Change is the only constant. There is nothing permanent except change.

– Heraclitus

If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got.

– Henry Ford

Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.

– Leo Tolstoy

The greatest discovery of all time is that a person can change his future by merely changing his attitude.

– Oprah Winfrey

I have accepted fear as part of life, specifically the fear of change. I have gone ahead despite the pounding in the heart that says “turn back.”

Erica Jong

Those who expect moments of change to be comfortable and free of conflict have not learned their history.

– Joan Wallach Scott

Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.

– John F. Kennedy

Life will only change when you become more committed to your dreams than you are to your comfort zone.

- Billy Cox

Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.

-  George Bernard Shaw

The art of progress is to preserve order amid change and to preserve change amid order.

- Alfred North Whitehead

After you’ve done a thing the same way for two years, look it over carefully. After five years, look at it with suspicion. And after ten years, throw it away and start all over.

- Alfred Edward Perlman

To exist is to change, to change is to mature, to mature is to go on creating oneself endlessly.

- Henri Bergson

Consider how hard it is to change yourself and you’ll understand what little chance you have in trying to change others.

- Jacob M. Braude

Things do not change; we change.

- Henry David Thoreau

We did not change as we grew older; we just became more clearly ourselves.

- Lynn Hall

You cannot step twice into the same river, for other waters are continually flowing in.

- Heraclitus

I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it.

- Pablo Picasso

Life is a progress, and not a station.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

All of us, every single year, we’re a different person. I don’t think we’re the same person all our lives.

- Steven Spielberg

You can judge your age by the amount of pain you feel when you come in contact with a new idea.

- Pearl S. Buck

Think progress, not perfection.

- Ryan Holiday

If there is no struggle, there is no progress.

- Frederick Douglass

Every day of our lives, we are on the verge of making those slight changes that would make all the difference.

- Mignon McLaughlin

Continuity gives us roots; change gives us branches, letting us stretch and grow and reach new heights.

- Pauline R. Kezer

Growth requires both obsession and objectivity. The obsession to do things we don’t know are going to work. The objectivity to change things when they don’t.

- Jack Butcher

An hour of clear thinking, can yield a conclusion that changes your life.

- Johnny Uzan

You have to know who you are to grow your potential. But you have to grow in order to know who you are.

- John C. Maxwell

Every ultimate fact is only the first of a new series… The new statement is always hated by the old, and, to those dwelling in the old, comes like an abyss of skepticism.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

What you have become is the price you paid to get what you used to want.

- Mignon McLaughlin

All change is not growth, as all movement is not forward.

- Ellen Glasgow

Positive quotes about change

There might come a time when you’ll find yourself resisting change. It happens to the best of us. Sometimes we get so attached to the way things currently are that we can’t even imagine them being different. However, when change is inevitable, there’s no need to panic because it can often have great outcomes.

If you need some help, consult our courage quotes. But we must be able to break from the past. Here are some positive quotes about change that will make you see things from a more optimistic point of view.

Don’t be afraid to give up the good to go for the great.

- John D. Rockefeller

Change is hard at first, messy in the middle and gorgeous at the end.

- Robin Sharma

How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.

- Anne Frank

Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don’t resist them - that only creates sorrow. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.

- Lao-Tzu

Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.

- Rumi (read more quotes)

I can't change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination.

- Jimmy Dean

We can change our lives. We can do, have and be exactly what we wish.

- Tony Robbins

Change always comes bearing gifts.

- Price Pritchett

The most beautiful and profound way to change yourself is to accept yourself completely, as imperfect as you are.

- Maxime Lagacé

You cannot change your destination overnight, but you can change your direction overnight.

- Jim Rohn

Open your arms to change, but don’t let go of your values.

- Dalai Lama

Forget yesterday, it has already forgotten you. Don’t sweat tomorrow, you haven’t even met. Instead, open your eyes and your heart to a truly precious gift: today.

- Steve Maraboli

Every positive change in your life begins with a clear, unequivocal decisions that you are going to either do something or stop doing something.

- Unknown

The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new.

- Socrates

Pain can change you, but that doesn’t mean it has to be a bad change. Take that pain and turn it into wisdom.

- Unknown

The ones who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.

- Steve Jobs

One small positive thought can change your whole day.

- Unknown

They must often change, who would be constant in happiness or wisdom.

- Confucius

There is nothing wrong with change if it is in the right direction.

- Winston Churchill

Recognizing that you are not where you want to be is a starting point to begin changing your life.

- Deborah Day

The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails.

- William Arthur Ward

Embrace uncertainty. Some of the most beautiful chapters in our lives won’t have a title until much later.

- Bob Goff

All great changes are preceded by chaos.

- Deepak Chopra

You will find that it is necessary to let things go; simply for the reason that they are heavy.

- C. JoyBell C.

All things are difficult before they are easy.

- Thomas Fuller

You must welcome change as the rule, but not as your ruler.

- Denis Waitley

Dreams are the seeds of change. Nothing ever grows without a seed, and nothing ever changes without a dream.

- Debby Boone

Don't be afraid of change. You may lose something good, but you may gain something better.

- Unknown

There isn't anything in your life that cannot be changed.

- Caroline Myss

You cannot change your future, but you can change your habits, and surely your habits will change your future.

- Abdul Kalam

For every positive change you make in your life, something else also changes for the better it creates a chain reaction.

- Leon Brown

Don't let the concept of change scare you as much as the prospect of remaining unhappy.

- Timber Hawkeye

Motivational quotes about change

It’s never easy to change an old habit. It takes a lot of courage to make hard decisions. But when it’s time, we have to be able to embrace change. Read these quotes below, or consult our growth quotes or motivational life quotes pages for more.

Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.

- James Baldwin

If I am an advocate for anything, it is to move. As far as you can, as much as you can. Across the ocean, or simply across the river.

- Anthony Bourdain

In any given moment we have two options: to step forward into growth or step back into safety.

- Abraham Maslow

Nothing happens unless something is moved.

- Albert Einstein

When the winds of change blow, some people build walls and others build windmills.

- Chinese proverb

They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself. -

Andy Warhol

Stop being afraid of what could go wrong, and start being excited about what could go right.

- Tony Robbins

Life is a process of becoming, a combination of states we have to go through. Where people fail is that they wish to elect a state and remain in it. This is a kind of death.

- Anais Nin

Lack of emotion causes lack of progress and lack of motivation.

- Tony Robbins

Do not waste time on things you cannot change or influence.

- Robert Greene

You never change your life until you step out of your comfort zone; change begins at the end of your comfort zone.

- Roy T. Bennett

Only I can change my life. No one can do it for me.

- Carol Burnett

That is at bottom the only courage that is demanded of us: to have courage for the most strange, the most singular and the most inexplicable that we may encounter.

- Rainer Maria Rilke

I didn’t get there by wishing for it or hoping for it, but by working for it.

- Estée Lauder

Change the changeable, accept the unchangeable, and remove yourself from the unacceptable.

- Denis Waitley

Let him that would move the world first move himself.

- Socrates

Change your life today. Don't gamble on the future, act now, without delay.

- Simone De Beauvoir

You will never know yourself completely. You are life. You are ever changing. And that’s fine. Just keep going.

- Maxime Lagacé

I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the water to create many ripples.

- Mother Teresa

The dogmas of the quiet past, are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew.

- Abraham Lincoln (read more quotes)

"Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not." - Dr. Seuss (read more quotes)

"Don’t spend time beating on a wall, hoping to transform it into a door." - Coco Chanel

"I’m not interested in preserving the status quo; I want to overthrow it." - Niccolo Machiavelli

"Few will have the greatness to bend history itself; but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation." - Robert F. Kennedy

"A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new." - Albert Einstein

"You don’t learn to walk by following rules. You learn by doing and by falling over." - Richard Branson

"You always have the choice between comfort and discomfort, mediocrity and growth, fitting in and standing out." - Maxime Lagacé

"The world is changed by your example, not by your opinion." - Tim Ferriss

"You’re off to great places! Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting, So get on your way!" - Dr. Seuss

"The most important thing to remember is this: To be ready at any moment to give up what you are for what you might become." - W.E.B. Du Bois

"Step out of the history that is holding you back. Step into the new story you are willing to create." - Oprah Winfrey

"Amateurs see change coming and become scared. Geniuses seek change and arrive at flow the closer they get to truth." - Maxime Lagacé

"If you don’t like change, you’re going to like irrelevance even less." - General Eric Shinseki

"Every day the clock resets. Your wins don't matter. Your failures don't matter. Don't stress on what was, fight for what could be." - Sean Higgins

"Your success in life isn't based on your ability to simply change. It is based on your ability to change faster than your competition, customers, and business." - Mark Sanborn